Oh Brother
by vampireskokoro
Summary: Roxas goes to a new school and stumbles across a dark family secret not really, another cliche story about twins featuring eventual!: Cleon, rikuxsora, and akuroku!


A/N: I started this over the summer and I've completely forgotten what exactly started the idea but part of it came from the drabbles written by my wondiferous beta, zaerainne. I've blamed her recently for just about everything I've done but I guess I'll let her slide on this one. Or maybe not, it's always fun to shove it off on someone else... I tried to get this all into one part but it was taking waaay to long so I decided, screw this, I'm posting! So enjoy and I'll have the rest of it up soon... enough

.:.

The first day of school is a rather dreaded day. It signifies the ending of freedom, the end of joy and happiness, and the end of staying up all hours of the night and sleeping the day away. No more wasting hours on the couch watching TV or playing video games. No more rotting ones eyes out constantly staring at a computer monitor. The long, hot summer days of goofing off with friends are over. Vacation is done and the hell that is school begins.

Roxas did not want to believe it was the early morning of the first day of school. He wanted to keep sleeping in his rather comfortable bed having stayed up nearly all night with his buddies on the Internet as they bid farewell to the end of summer. Roxas wanted to cling to the blankets and the last bit of vacation.

Someone else had other plans for him.

The overhead light was turned on, blinding him through his eyelids, the blankets were pulled off of him, and a bucket of cold tap water was poured onto him.

"Wake up, kid, it's time for school," a gruff voice said as Roxas jolted upright, spluttering. He glared as his adoptive father walked out of his room, bucket hanging from his shoulder. "You got five minutes or you get another bucket."

Roxas grudgingly crawled out of his bed and stumbled over to his closet. He didn't care much about the clothes he put out, just made sure they didn't clash too badly before leaving his room, heading for the bathroom. He glanced at his image in the mirror, grimacing at his wet hair. He really didn't care much about what he looked like but his hair was something he liked to take care of. Probably a side affect of living with a man who obsessed over fixing his hair into the perfect nest of spikes. Rummaging through the closet, Roxas pulled a tub of gel from under a stack of towels. He had to hide his own gel most of the time or risk Cloud wandering in and stealing it.

It didn't take long for him to fix his hair the way he wanted and brush his teeth. In the kitchen, he found Cloud leaning against the counter, eyes flicking back and forth as he skimmed the morning paper. A mug of coffee sat on the faux marble surface next to him. Roxas poked around inside the freezer, finding the last of the frozen waffles and popping them into the toaster. He wandered back into his room while they warmed up to grab his bag. He made sure all his books and papers were in order before throwing the strap over his shoulder and turning the light off on his way out.

"Got everything?" Cloud asked as Roxas took the waffles out of the toaster and put them on a napkin. The younger blond nodded. "Ok, let's go then." Cloud took a final gulp of coffee, folded his newspaper, and led the way out of the apartment.

.:.

The first day of school is a bad thing in most people's books. The first day of high school entering his junior year at a new school was the worst day Roxas could think of and of course that was the kind of day he had to face. Cloud's job made them move a couple times before and Twilight Town had been his favorite so far. The small town had been nice and he'd managed to make some really good friends. He'd almost considered staying behind to finish up school but he knew that would just make life more complicated than it really needed to be.

So now he had to attend Hollow Bastion High, home of the Moogles. Not the most intimidating of mascots, but whatever. The school itself was a little daunting with its large, immaculate campus and large buildings. Students milled around, waiting for the first bell to ring. Roxas looked out the window as Cloud pulled up to the sidewalk. He turned to look as his dad pulled out a beeping pager. Cloud frowned, almost angrily jabbing the button to turn it off.

"You're going to have to find a different way to get to school if this keeps up," Cloud told Roxas with a grimace. "Some people seem to be lacking in patience."

"Like you?" Roxas joked. He hopped out of the truck. "Don't forget to pick me up."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Cloud waited for Roxas to grab his violin case out of the truck bed. "Have fun, kid."

Roxas waved as Cloud drove away. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and made his way through the crowds of students. This was the second worst thing about moving to a new town, meeting new people who already knew each other. The only thing worse was having to find a new place to get his favorite sea-salt ice cream. And having to actually move all the crap he and Cloud had lying around, being the packrats they refused to believe they were. So having to make new friends at a new school was the third worst thing about moving. Well, having to say goodbye to his friends sucked too… ok, so it was in the top ten worst things.

He wandered towards the large music room where a group of rowdy kids was talking rather animatedly with each other. Some of them had instrument cases lying at their feet amidst piles of bags and jackets. Roxas kept his distance, analyzing his classmates. There hadn't been too many kids in orchestra back in Twilight Town but HBH was a pretty well known art school and as such, there were more kids with instruments. Roxas wasn't really sure he liked what he saw. They all looked… weird. One of the guys standing around was huge; there was no way he was a student in high school, he looked like a college student in the heavy weight wrestling division. There was girl with bizarre antennae-like strands of hair sticking out of her forehead sitting in a guy's lap whose hair was pink. Another guy had flame red spiked hair and he laughed too loud. They all looked like a big circus act instead of students. In his bid to try to look as plain as possible, Roxas had inadvertently caused himself to stick out like a sore thumb in this group.

The bell signaling the beginning of school blared loudly, causing Roxas to wince in discomfort as his ears were soundly deafened for a good thirty seconds. The students shouted at the friends wandering off to other classes and filed into the music room. Roxas followed, ignoring the jostling going on around him. The music room was large, filled to bursting with musical instruments, computers, chairs, and students. A few kids were seating themselves and Roxas did as well, finding himself a chair in the back. He kept his beat up violin case under his chair, his feet tapping against it nervously. This was the point Roxas hated, the time when he would be noticed for the new kid he was and pointed out. He would just have to try not to do anything to draw attention to himself.

Right on cue, someone tripped over his bag, which he'd placed against his chair, lying halfway in the aisle between the last chairs and the wall. There was a loud crash and papers went flying all over. Roxas jumped up, turning his back to the now staring students and looking down at the klutz lying on his bag. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," a grinning blond said, pushing himself up from off the floor. "Sorry, didn't see your bag there."

"You want some help?" Roxas asked, kneeling down to help pick up the scattered sheet music.

"Yeah, thanks." The guy bent over, scooping his papers into his arms. "I don't think I've ever seen you in school before. You new?"

"Just moved here from Twilight Town," Roxas said, handing over the papers he'd collected. "I'm Roxas."

"Demyx." The blond offered his hand for a high five and Roxas hesitantly reciprocated. Then, much to his horror, Demyx began waving over the crowd of weird kids. "Hey guys, come say 'hi' to the new kid."

Roxas wondered if murder was too extreme for his first day of school. Maybe before Thanksgiving break… He pulled himself away from contemplations of poisons that would have the other blond dead quickly as the other students crowded his personal space.

"Well, hello there," the spiky redhead said, a smirk on his face. Roxas noted the odd marks under his eyes and wondered what the hell they actually were- they could be tattoos but what kind of idiot tattooed their face... "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Sure?" Roxas said, trying to slowly back away from him and the others. Fortunately, the music teacher walked in and Roxas decided right away that the squat man was his all time favorite teacher for saving his personal bubble from immanent intrusion.

.:.

History was such a stupid subject, really. It wasn't like there was anything to learn that would help him in the future. And the teacher wasn't helping. She had already won Roxas' undying dislike by starting off with recapping the summer assignment he hadn't known about and giving a new project for them. It was the first freaking day of school, for crying out loud. The news apparently hadn't made it to the teacher who automatically started teaching as if summer had never even happened. Roxas tried his best to pay attention to the notes he needed to copy from the powerpoint (which is to say he tried his best not to fall asleep on the table).

He glanced up when a piece of paper from his neighbor skidded to a halt in front of him. Roxas glanced over at the smiling blond, trying to remember what the girl's name. Naomi? Natalie? He grabbed the obvious note and unfolded it.

_Hey, I'm Namine._ Oh, that's what it was. Roxas glanced up at the teacher. There was no risk from her noticing them, her attention completely trained on the small text on the screen. He scribbled down an answer.

_Roxas._ He slid the paper back to Namine.

_You just move to Hollow Bastion?_

_Yeah. From Twilight Town._

_That's nice. What elective are you taking? Music?_

Roxas raised an eyebrow at the question and the correct guess. _Yeah, how'd you know?_

_I didn't see you in art and the students from psychology like taking notes in every class. _

_Oh._ Roxas handed the paper back and tried to pay attention to the teacher. Holy crap, was that a mole on the back of her neck? Damn, the thing was huge! Namine tapped his arm, pressing the paper back into his hand. He looked down and smirked at the hangman's noose set up for an entertaining game of hangman.

.:.

"Are you sure antepenultimate is a real word?" Namine asked, stuffing her books into his bookbag. Roxas grinned, proud of his hangman trump card.

"Yes. It's the third to last in a series." Roxas glanced over at the history teacher as they left, noting her not so happy look as she balled up the note she'd confiscated from them.

"Why do you know that?" Namine asked, with a laugh. Roxas shrugged. "Well, Word-wizard, what class do you have next?"

"Biology," Roxas said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Oh, gross, the guts lab right before lunch." Namine made a face. "Well, hope I see you around."

"Sure."

Roxas had to hurry upstairs for his next class. The science room was a large, well-equipped lab and each table had a sticky note assigning seats placed on it. Roxas was glad for this; assigned seats left out the chance of having to sit alone or with a group of people he didn't know chatting around him. He read the name of his future lab partner. Kairi… he shrugged his bag off and sat on the stool.

He watched the door, wondering which of the milling students would be sitting next to him. A reddish haired girl walked in, chatting animatedly with another girl. She glanced at him and her face unexpectedly lit up.

"Sora!" she exclaimed, waving at Roxas. He looked over his shoulder, wondering if she was greeting someone behind him. Nobody was there. "Oh, Sora, sorry I was late this morning, we just got back from vacation and Mom's still got jet lag." The girl _hugged_ him, invaded his space and wrapped her arms around him and smiled, all the while calling him some stupid name. Who the hell did she think she was? "Jeez, what did you do with your hair?"

"Um, I'm not Sora," Roxas said, running his hand through his hair self-consciously when she let him go. "My name's Roxas."

She looked surprised and her face immediately turned bright red. "Oh, I'm sorry." She giggled nervously. "You must think I'm an idiot now." Yes. "You just really look like a friend of mine and I haven't seen him in awhile. Sorry, didn't mean to molest you like that." She smiled at him and offered a hand. Roxas vaguely noticed the fancy manicure on her fingernails. "My name's Kairi."

"Roxas," he said, shaking her hand. "Guess you're my lab partner then."

"Really?" She peered at the sticky note on the table as if she didn't trust him to tell the truth. "Oh great, now you get to sit next to the weirdo who thought you were someone else." She tucked some hair behind her ear. "It's really odd, you look exactly like Sora. Just your hair is different… and he may be a bit shorter than you." She put her hand on top of his head and moved it to her shoulder, trying to gauge his height while he was sitting down. Roxas raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll introduce you to him at lunch, he's a nice guy."

Roxas wasn't the best at reading people but the dreamy look in Kairi's eyes was so obviously a crush even the half blind gerbil he'd had a few years ago could have seen it. He really hoped she wouldn't tell him anything girly like how cute the guy was or anything. But she seemed to be done talking to him for the moment and leaned over the table to talk to the girl two rows down. Roxas sighed, leaning his chin into his hand. _Lunch is in fifty minutes_, he reminded himself. _Just survive through that and the day will almost be over._

.:.

If Kairi ever wound up on the news, it would be for kidnapping and overly manhandling someone and it wouldn't surprise Roxas at all. She was latched onto his arm like one of those aliens from the bad sci-fi movies, dragging him along and refusing to let go. She was chattering nonstop about the Sora guy she had mentioned earlier and Roxas wondered if he really was flypaper for freaks like Hayner had once told him. Whenever he tried to pull away, Kairi pulled back and she never let him get a word in edgewise. So Roxas resigned himself to his fate and made a mental note to ask their biology teacher to move him very far away from the crazy girl.

"SORA!!" She suddenly squealed and not only was Roxas forcefully dragged along as she ran towards a sunny courtyard, he was also now deaf in one ear. "Sora! Wait for me!"

Roxas would have run if some chick had run at him like Kairi was doing now. But the guy she was running toward- short, skinny kid with wild, spiky brown hair wearing a… Pooh Bear jacket?- just turned around and seemed to brace himself as he obligingly waited. Kairi let Roxas go once they were within tackling distance of the guy Roxas now presumed was Sora. He winced in sympathy as Kairi barreled into Sora, hugging him tightly around the waist. Sora's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

"Kai. Can't. Breathe," He choked out. Kairi let him go laughing and smiling brightly. Roxas shifted his bag on his shoulder and slowly started to move away from the nutjob and the guy who really did look freakishly similar to him.

"Sora, have you met the new kid?" Kairi asked, ruining Roxas' escape plan by grabbing his arm before he could get to far away. "His name's Roxas. And this is Sora." She turned the smile towards the blond boy who already felt bruises forming under her surprisingly tight grip. "See, didn't I tell you he looked just like you?"

Roxas hesitantly glanced up at Sora and saw he was also being looked at. It really was uncanny just how alike they looked, Roxas admitted. Same color eyes, same spattering of freckles across the face, same dubious looks at each other. If they wanted to, they could very easily pass off for one another so long as they changed their hair… and clothes, Roxas added giving Sora's odd attire a once-over. Winnie the Pooh Bear plastered on the back of a dark blue jacket, peace sign shirt, tight fitting jeans, and brand new tennis shoes. An odd crown necklace hung from his neck and if it weren't for the fact Roxas had his own weird necklace on, he would have thought something negative about it completing the weird look.

"Kairi, I think you're breaking his arm," Sora said with a chuckle. Sora gave his own introduction as Kairi finally let go of Roxas and after a few short minutes, Roxas found himself sitting with Sora, Kairi, and a few of their friends at a table just outside the loud, crowded cafeteria. Roxas sat on the fringe of the conversation, letting everyone else talk over each other, only speaking when spoken too for the few seconds he could before someone else interrupted.

Soon enough, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and they all trudged back into their classes. Roxas had a few of his new acquaintances in his last few classes and they chatted together for a few minutes when school finally let out. It was Namine who walked with him towards the parking lot, the others having raced off to catch their buses or find their own rides home.

"So what do you think about our school?" Namine asked, waving a hand vaguely in the air.

"I'm beginning to wonder if it really is a school or a mental institute," Roxas joked. "Is everyone normally this crazy?"

Namine giggled. "Yes. Something in the fountain water, you know. Wait till a full moon comes around, then you'll see what true insanity is." Roxas wasn't sure if she was kidding or not.

"I guess it really-" He was cut off as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling out the old dinosaur he called a cell phone, Roxas hit the receive button and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, kid," Cloud said, his voice crackling through. "I'm going to be late picking you up, I got a late delivery and I'm on the other side of town. It'll be about ten minutes."

"Ok, I'll wait here then," Roxas said. "See ya when you get here."

"Alright, bye." The line went dead and Roxas shoved his phone back in his pocket.

"You're ride gonna be late?" Namine asked.

"Yeah, my dad's job held him up." Roxas stopped under the shade of a tree, already wondering which homework assignment he should get started on.

"Do you want us to give you a ride?" Namine offered, pointing out into the parking lot where only a few cars were left sitting in their marked spots. Roxas noticed Kairi talking to a silver haired guy he'd seen at lunch, Riku or something. It'll just be me and my boyfriend."

Something in Roxas died a little when she said that. Of course the only sane girl at the school would be taken. And of course he would happen to say that out loud. Namine giggled at his comment as he tried to hide the faint blush blooming across his cheeks.

"We're not _that_ crazy here," Namine said.

"Have you met Kairi?" Roxas asked.

"She's my cousin." Namine reached up to ruffle his hair and Roxas caught the smell of some kind of flower. He would never admit the fact that he knew it was jasmine because no guy would freely admit any sort of knowledge about flowers. "Everyone here has a relative here."

"Really?" Roxas asked, mind suddenly springing to thoughts of an city of inbred hicks where incest was acceptable… Cloud had told him horror stories about places like that (and often enough threatened to abandon him in one if he didn't hurry up and take the garbage out).

"Yep. Kairi and I are cousins and Riku, my boyfriend, is the principle's stepson. The art teacher's younger brother is in music, the red head, Axel."

Roxas raised an eyebrow, suddenly remembering the guy who'd invaded his personal bubble in the morning.

"And Sora's dad's nephew is in music too," Namine finished. "His name's Demyx."

Roxas only vaguely thought about the klutz who'd tripped over his bag. "Wouldn't that make them cousins?"

"Technically, but Sora is adopted so he's safe from unintentional incest." She smiled at him and Roxas was once again unsure if she was joking. But he pushed that out of his mind, for some reason interested in the fact that the Pooh Bear jacket guy was adopted as well. Roxas had met few others who were adopted and he got on better with said people better than most others. Something a school counselor had said about connecting with the same tragic past or something, he hadn't stayed awake long enough for all of the monologueing. "So what about you, anyone here happen to randomly be related to you?"

"Huh?" Roxas shook his head, breaking away from his thoughts. "Oh, no, not that I know of. Most of my dad's family lives down in the Destiny Islands. And I'm adopted anyway so I'm technically not related to anyone either."

"Oh," Namine said. She opened her mouth to continue but was cut off by a horn bleating pitifully under Kairi's impatient fist.

"Let's go, Nami!" the other girl shouted, sticking her head out of the back seat window. Namine sighed and gave Roxas a look that seemed to say _Geez, isn't she just the best person in the world_.

"So, do you still need a lift or are you gonna wait?" Namine asked again. Roxas shook his head.

"My dad said it wouldn't be long and my phone gets crap reception so he'd have no idea where I was." Roxas let his bag fall to the ground. Namine smiled at him and waved goodbye before running to her boyfriend's car.

.:.

The next several days of school followed the same pattern for Roxas. Music in the morning where he would have his personal boundaries thoroughly disrespected and saved only when the teacher told every one to shut up and get to work. History with Namine where passing notes to each other took up more time than actually taking notes from the teacher's droning lecture. Biology, still sat next to Kairi but fortunately, she proved to be competent when it came to dangerous chemicals and thus no explosions came from their class (the class before them, however, happened to have Axel in it, whom Roxas had learned was a budding pyromaniac and so explosions were guaranteed). Lunch where he sat with Kairi and Namine and the rest of their friends. Math and Theory of Knowledge and then English, taught by the scariest man Roxas had met, including a pissed off, bitchy morning Cloud when all the coffee was gone. The blue haired Mr. Saix made the class entertaining by constantly threatened to mentally scar them all for life and from some of the conversations Roxas had heard, it was no idle threat.

"Yeah, he'll make you want to personally rip your eyes out," Sora said one bright Thrusday afternoon as they blinked into the sunlight after the dim darkness of the English classroom. "Riku's told me before. Apparently Saix is in a very intimate relationship with the student councilor, Xenmas, and they both use that to their advantage to scare kids into good behavior."

"How?" Roxas asked.

"Let's just say avoid all the classrooms during lunch." Sora shuddered. "They uh, like to… _you know_…"

Roxas was suddenly sure he did and suddenly wanted to bleach his brain at the mental images he got from that idea. "Oh, gag me."

"Yeah, Riku says it's disturbing, especially when you hear them at it after teacher meetings." Sora winced but grinned as Roxas shook his head.

"Lalalala, I can _not_ hear you," Roxas said, stuffing his fingers in his ears. He waited a good while as they walked down the crowded halls before taking his hands away from the sides of his face. "Gross."

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "Hey, are you doing anything the weekend after next?"

Roxas blinked at the sudden (but very much appreciated) subject change. The weekend after next… was his birthday, wasn't it? They usually didn't do much on his birthday but he had planned to see his friends from Twilight Town and celebrating it with them. "Um, yeah, actually. My birthday's that Friday and I'm going back to Twilight Town to see my old friends."

"Are you serious?" Sora asked. "That is too weird, my birthday's on the same day. I'm throwing a big party at my house on Saturday. You turning seventeen?" Roxas nodded. "Wow, so weird. What time of day?"

"Uh, I have no clue," Roxas said and something in the back of his mind started whispering to him, making him think about this weird coincidence. Both of them adopted, born on the same day in the same year, similar appearances…

"Why, hello there, Sunshine," an all too familiar voice said just a second before a heavy weight descended upon his shoulders. Roxas glared straight ahead, not even bothering to acknowledge the redhead hanging off of him, instead chosing to keep walking towards French class.

"Hey, Axel, is Riku nearby?" Sora asked, looking around for his silver haired friend.

"Last I saw him, he was playing tonsil hockey with Namine by the water fountain," Axel said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

"Oh good, she's got my sketchbook," Sora said, beginning to walk away.

"Riku told you he'd strangle you the next time you interrupted them," Axel warned, still not letting go of Roxas who hadn't bitten him yet only because he didn't know where the redhead had _been_ before. "Well, we'll be seeing him hanging from the flag pole by his underwear later."

Roxas ignored him. Axel was inside his bubble and the most he would get from Roxas was a quick jab in the side and a door in the face.


End file.
